Addition Strategies

Materials: dice and calculators

Use two dice. Roll the dice and say how many dots are on each die just by looking. Then add the number of dots. Enter the number into your calculator to keep progressive scores. The first person to reach a given number such as 100 wins. Variation:  include three dice or dice of varying numbers, like a 4-9 die. 

Materials: a pair of dice

Use two dice. Roll dice as many times as you like, adding the dots on the dice and keep a running total of the sum of your rolls. However, if you roll a 1 on one of the dice, your turn is over and 0 is scored for that round. If 1s come up on both dice, your turn is over and your total for the game thus far becomes 0. The first person to reach 100 wins. 

Materials: a deck of cards

Deal out the deck of cards evenly between players. Face cards can be 10s or removed from the deck.  Each player turns over the top two cards and adds them. The player with the larger sum takes all four cards. Variation: each player draws 1, player to announce sum first wins the match.

Variation for subtraction: the player with the larger number takes the two cards.  They will also take as many beans or counters as the difference between the two numbers turned over (Ex: 6 and 4 are turned over, the player who turned over the 6 gets to take 2 beans).  

Add difficulty: have each player turn over two cards each turn and add the sum of the cards.

Materials: a deck of cards

Use Aces as 1s and 2 – 9 from a deck of cards. Deal out 7 cards to each player. Place the remaining cards face down in the middle. Begin by players looking through their hands to see if they have matches, or combinations of 2 cards that will add to 10.  Play begins as players take turns asking others for numbers they need to make a ten.

Variation: use flashcards or index cards with addition facts written but no answers. Matches/pairs are made by matching sums. (i.e. 3+ 2 and 4 +1 are a match).  Players ask another for a sum for a card they have in their hand. 

Materials: flashcards/index cards with addition facts  w/o answers 

Place the cards face down on a table or the floor in an orderly fashion. On each player’s turn, he or she turns over two cards and determines the sum on each card. If the sums are equal, the player has made a match and keeps the cards. (Thus, 8+1 and 3+6 can be a match.) If the sums are not equal, the two cards are turned back over and left in their same place. 
 

Materials: 2 dice and paper

Each player writes 15 numbers using the numbers 1 - 9. Numbers may be used multiple times and not all numbers need to be used. The dice are rolled and the sum of the dice is determined. All players cross that sum out in any way possible on their lists. Thus, if you have the numbers, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3,5, 5, 5, 5, 6, 6 written on your paper and you roll a 7, you can cross out any combinations equaling 7. You could cross out 2 and 5; or 1, 3, and 3; or 6 and 1; etc. The game ends when one player crosses out all of his or her numbers or when no one can cross out a combination on their sheets. 
 

Materials: a deck of cards & paper

Great game to practice addition and subtraction fluency.  Players choose two cards and decide to add or subtract the numbers. If another player has a game piece on the number they have calculated, you get to remove their game piece and tell them to, “Get Out of My House”!

Get Out of My House Video Tutorial
 

Materials: dice, a piece of paper and pencil

This game reinforces probability concepts while practicing addition facts. Players take turns rolling a die.  Each player decides if they are going to continue rolling to accumulate points or if they will stop and take the points they have rolled.  If you roll a 2, you lose all of your points!
 

Greedy Pig Video Tutorial

Materials: a deck of cards

Just like the game of Go Fish, except in this version, players are looking to add doubles (1+1, 2+2…) and near doubles (2+3, 4+5…)

Video Tutorial

Materials: deck of cards

Players take turns picking cards from a row or column.  The goal of this game is to get the biggest total at the end of the game. It’s a great mental math game. Children practice making groups of tens to add more easily.

Video Tutorial

Materials: a deck of cards
A simple game that practices adding multiple addends.  It’s a great game to practice mental math.

Video tutorial

Recent research in the area of the brain shows that we learn math best when we can attach multiple meanings to it especially as visual representations. Try folding a paper in fourths and then fold down the corner of the middle. Open it up and represent a math fact in 4 ways. Begin by writing the fact you want to work on in the middle. Then, represent the problem 4 ways by creating a visual solution of the problem, a different visual solution, writing a story problem and solving the problem numerically.